Over 150 people killed in the Itaewon crowd crush in Seoul.

According to officials, at least 151 people were killed in a crush as large Halloween crowds plunged into a narrow street in South Korea’s capital, Seoul.

At least 82 people were injured in the Itaewon nightlife district, which was hosting its first unmasked Halloween festivities since Covid.

According to reports, people cornered in the crush were stacking up on top of each other.

The majority of those killed were teenagers or young adults in their twenties. Nineteen of them were foreign nationals.

The disaster’s cause is still being investigated.

Following an emergency meeting, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol directed the formation of a task force to assist in the treatment of the injured. He also started looking into what caused the crush.

With the current death toll, this is South Korea’s deadliest disaster since 2014, when the Sewol ferry sank, massacring over 300 people.

Itaewon is among the most popular nightlife districts in Seoul.

Every weekend, both locals and tourists flock there, but Halloween is among the busiest nights of the year.

On Saturday, an estimated 100,000 people descended on the city to mark the first Halloween since the outbreak’s inception in which gathering sizes were not restricted and people were not required to wear masks outdoors.

The crush seems to have begun in a narrow, slanted alleyway that was already congested. Social media images and videos show the alley was so crowded that people could not move. In one video, people are having difficulty breathing. In another, emergency personnel attempt to extract people from what seems to be a pile. Cries for help resound in the air.

Bodies were draped in blue blankets and lined up along the street. More were carried into ambulances, devoid of life. Members of the public, as well as hundreds of emergency personnel dispatched from across the country, performed CPR on those who were incapacitated.

Friends and relatives of the missing have been arriving at the scene this morning, searching for clues to determine whether their loved ones were present.

However, the bodies were moved from the street to a gymnasium so that family members can identify them. Given the number of victims, this is anticipated to take some time and is the authorities’ highest priority right now.

Jeon Ga-eul, 30, was drinking at a bar when the crush started. “Something truly awful is unfolding outside,” she told the AFP news agency. “What are you speaking about, I asked? Then I went outdoors to see what was going on, and there were people conducting CPR in the street.”

A doctor who provided first aid at the scene stated that there were two victims when he began performing CPR, but “the number blew up soon after, surpassing the emergency personnel.”

Earlier in the evening, some people commented on social media that the Itaewon area was so congested that they felt unsafe.

An emergency broadcast was sent to every cell phone in the Yongsan District, according to a local journalist, advising citizens to return home as quickly as possible due to “an emergency accident adjacent to Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon.”

The focus will almost certainly shift to the safety regulations as well as crowd control procedures in place at these events. President Yoon already has requested that the safety of festivity sites be reviewed.

Numerous global leaders have issued condolences. Both British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as well as French President Emmanuel Macron expressed solidarity with the people of South Korea.

Josep Borrell, the European Union’s chief diplomat, expressed his sadness, and Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, promised American support.